Communication technologies have experienced very rapid evolution over recent years. Connected mobile terminals in particular, such as for example intelligent telephones, so-called smartphones, have become democratized and today occupy a central place in the life of their users. Users are contactable at any time according to various modalities and share all sorts of information with others, where and when they so desire.
These terminals make it possible for example to establish voice communications, to exchange files, instant messages or emails, or else to establish video communications. Smartphones often comprise various types of sensors, such as for example proximity or light sensors, or else a locating module of global positioning system (GPS) type. Numerous terminals also integrate a dual-camera, one being positioned on the front face of the terminal so as to capture the user's face and the other being situated on the opposite face in order to capture images of the environment of the terminal. Likewise, certain terminals integrate an ambience microphone intended to capture the sound of the environment and a second microphone intended to capture the voice of the user when the latter is communicating. In association with these capture devices, the terminals also comprise real-time audio and video encoding and decoding components, as well as various types of wireless network interfaces, such as for example Wifi, Bluetooth or 3G interfaces.
Such an accumulation of functionalities in a compact and roaming device poses a resources management problem. Thus, very rigorous energy management is indispensable in order that users may enjoy satisfactory autonomy.
Audiovisual communications like videoconferencing are particularly heavy consumers of resources. Indeed, this mode of communication utilizes the simultaneous implementation of a video encoder and of a video decoder, of a camera and of a screen, of an audio encoder and of an audio decoder, of an amplifier, of a loudspeaker and of a microphone.
Various solutions have been proposed for optimizing energy consumption under these conditions. For example, international patent application WO 2014138331 A2 describes a method making it possible to adapt the quality of a decoded video according to the residual charge of the battery of a terminal. Methods for adapting the quality of a video according to the network resources available are also known.
However, these adaptation techniques are based solely on the available resources and do not take into account the context of use of the terminal. It may thus happen that the quality of a video stream and/or of an audio stream is decreased at a time which is not opportune for the user.
A need therefore exists to adapt the consumption of resources during a communication as a function of the context in which the terminal is used.
The embodiments disclosed herein improve the consumption of resources based on contexts in which the terminal is used.